For the second challenge in The Project Food Blog 2010, I was asked to select an ethnic classic that is outside of my comfort zone.

Challenge number two was surprisingly difficult for me especially deciding what to cook. My challenge was finding an ethnic food that I am uncomfortable cooking. Every week, I regularly make ethnic dishes and am very comfortable cooking Swedish, Thai, Korean, Greek, Indian, Japanese, Vietnamese and Chinese food. I promised myself that the challenge had to be from a country I have never been to or cooked their food. I really had to take out a globe and start looking. Then I came up with a few ideas Albanian, Bolivian, etc. But those didn’t sound very interesting, so then I went to my travel to do list. Which places are on my list for vacation that I still have not been to? Here I found the place – Morocco. I have never been to Morocco, I have eaten Moroccan food and I love their flavors and spices. But I have never cooked it. So then I started doing research on traditional Moroccan food. I was like a little kid in a candy store.

Moroccan cuisine is extremely diverse, and has influences of Berber, Moorish, Mediterranean, and Arab spices. As a result, Moroccan cuisine is regarded as the most diverse in the world. Spices are used extensively in Moroccan food such as saffron, mint, cinnamon cumin, turmeric, ginger, anise, and coriander; spices that are strong and aromatic and just make the house smell wonderful.

The most common Moroccan dish is couscous, something I really enjoy but it is too easy to make. As I continued down the list of traditional Moroccan dish, I found Pastilla, Tajine, and Harira. All three dishes sounded amazing, but I ended up picking Harira since it is a soup and I am a huge soup lover, I knew it would be something I would make again for dinner.

Harira is a chickpea and lamb soup from Morocco usually served in the evening when it’s time for Muslims to break the daily fast during Ramadan. In Morocco, it is eaten along with fresh figs, or honey sweetmeats (chabakkia with almonds and honey).

I looked around for Harira recipes and there are many versions; vegetarian, beef and lamb. Since I am also a lamb lover I opted for a Lamb Harira recipe. Also there are many additional variations of this recipe some use saffron some do not, I do not know if this is because it’s hard to get or not. But I opted for a recipe I found in the New York Times but I decided to add saffron to it since that is what I was reading was authentic. Also I opted to use the vermicelli pasta vs. the rice, you can add rice, vermicelli pasta or both.

As I was cooking this dish the house smelled wonderful and I wanted to start planning my trip to Morocco.

The dish was delicious, so tasty and flavorful. It is something I will definitely make again.

Harira – Moroccan lamb and lentil soup

Yields: 12 servings | Prep Time: 2 hour 30 minutes

Note: If you are using dried lentils and garbanzo beans leave them in water overnight

In a large pot, warm olive oil. Add both types of onion and garlic, and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. On the side heat up a skillet with oil and when hot brown the lamb about 1 minute each on each side. Then add lamb, turmeric, black pepper, cinnamon, ginger, cayenne, celery, cumin, coriander, saffron and cilantro, into the pot and let cook, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes. Season with salt.

Hope you had a good weekend and a fabulous Thanksgiving I don’t know but do you do Thanksgiving now when you are back in Sweden. Anyways i must have missed this question way back. But i used a lamb shank for this soup. Happy first advent! Eat anything good?

Great job staying true to the constraints of the challenge and selecting something interesting to read, look at, and presumably eat:) I love the fig lineup shot. Fig season is freakin’ amazing this year I’m noticing.

Linda – Hope all is well. Been following you for awhile and love your blog and your crazy imagination . Still very interested to learn more about the Sous Vide, just might have to get it to try it out. Hope to see you here soon again. Maybe one day we could meet up in a Seattle blog meet up.

You’ve made me want to skip work tomorrow and head out to Morocco — seriously, I love the descriptions in this post. The history of Northern Africa is fascinating, too. You’ve got my vote (again), Ewa!

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About Delishhh

Delishhh is a food blog written by Ewa [eva], a happy Swede living in Seattle, WA. She has a passion for healthy, simple, delicious and fun recipes. She believes in 100% Organic foods and GMO Free. She is a bid advocate for GMO labeling and that people should know what is in their food. She not only enjoys sharing her recipes , but travel tips, restaurants reviews and lots ...more